9/22 to 9/28 Watchlist

I enjoy making lists and un-detailed chronicles.  This week's complete watchlist.  Not necessarily my recommendations, but merely a list of the television I have watched in the last seven days.

Luther
Series One, Episodes 4-6
Series Two, Episodes 1-4

Doctor Who, reboot
Series Two, Episodes:
-Tooth and Claw
-School Reunion
-The Girl in the Fireplace
-The Impossible Planet
-The Satan Pit
-Love & Monsters
-Fear Her
-Army of Ghosts
-Doomsday
Series Seven, Episodes:
-The Bells of Saint Johns
-The Rings of Akhaten
-Cold War

Top Gear UK
Series Two, Episodes 6-13

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Lost count -- probably close to twenty episodes post series 18

Outcasts
Episodes 1 & 2

Whitechapel
Episode 1

New Girl, season 3, episode 2 "Nerd"
The Mindy Project, season 2, episode 2 "The Other Dr. L"

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., pilot

Saturday Night Live, season premier, Tina Fey w/ musical guests Arcade Fire

Ricky's Ckorner

This week Ricky has been watching a lot of QI. I can tell because he is being more snarky and pretentious than usual.  When I asked him if he wanted to go outside to catch toads, he ranted about how everyone thinks that there is this huge difference between frogs and toads, when in reality they follow much of the same logic as geometry.

All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.

Or horticulture.

All carnations are dianthus, but not all dianthus are carnations.

In one of Ricky's less domineering moments this week, he shared with me his favorite video of Alan Davies being adorable and sharing some 3rd grader jokes and Stephen Fry not being able to handle the adolescent behavior. In fact, he calls Alan a very mean name too. And Mr Fry does not like Alan getting more laughs than him.  Ricky likes Alan Davies because he has a youthful air about him.  Ricky's select 30-or-so seconds run from :24 to :59, but I recommend just watching the whole thing.  It's one minute and forty-five seconds long.  

The clip is from QI Series B, Episode 8 "Bees"with Jo Brand, Rich Hall, and Fred MacAulay.

Thanks for joining us for another installment of Ricky's Ckorner!  The best 30 odd seconds of television Ricky has seen all week.

Tunesdays with Tonnie

I am aware this is not a very original title, but it's descriptive enough.  I do not need to go on a multi-paragraph diatribe about why music is important to a television show.  It can make or break the mood, turn something from heartwarming into gutting.  Music does more to convey emotion than even the most skilled actors.  I know when I hear a variation of "I am the Doctor" that something is going to be discovered/realized/actualized and I get excited because something amazing is going to happen.

In my, hopefully, weekly Tuesday post, I'm going to share some of my favorite use of music in television in two categories: Original Score and Re-use, or re-appropriation, or whatever you'd like to call it.  I'm going to call it re-use.

Music picks after the cut!

Never Mind

 My television viewing often gets out of hand.

This past Saturday was a great example of how I found myself watching television for hours on end after promising myself, "I'll turn it off after one more." I had not planned upon starting an epic journey of my second British panel show, Never Mind the Buzzcocks. To date, I have probably watched approximately 15-20 episodes so that is at least 7.5 to 10 hours since Saturday.  Saturday at 10am, I found myself completely resolved to have a productive day.  As I watched the sun arc high into the sky and start to sink behind the blinds of my bedroom, I realized I had lost an entire day to ridiculous pop culture nonsense.  I'm not quite sure why I find British panel quiz shows so entirely entertaining and informative.

Maybe it's because of moments like this...

Television has the ability to make me forget that I have responsibilities and commitments.

Maybe I just need Phill Jupitus stand in my apartment and yell "TURN IT OFF!" at random intervals.

Ricky's Ckorner

Ricky's attention span doesn't usually last for more than 15 seconds unless he's staring at our roommate trying to make him feel uncomfortable. Each week, probably on Thursdays, Ricky and I are going to present 30 seconds of nearly perfect television. Whether it's well acted, or suspenseful, or just funny. I'm really bad at editing video so I'll probably just post a video and then list the time markers until I get better at this nonsense.

 The first installment of Ricky's Ckorner is a wonderful moment from 30 Rock's series finale. (This is because I couldn't find a clip of the New Girl episode I wanted to show, so once I figure that out, hopefully I'll have it up in a couple of weeks...) Ricky thinks this is 30 seconds of perfect TV because it's sweet and cerebral. (It's actually only 27 seconds, but I'll let Ricky have a victory.)
And these are only the moments Liz and Jack can give us.

BBC coming to HuluPlus

In ways that only Netflix can dream of.  You better believe I took my Hulu+ Subscription off of it's three month hold nearly a month early.
Read all about it here.

To My Dearest Town of Broadchurch

I started watching this wonderful, emotionally vacillating show a few months ago and stopped about halfway through the first episode due to the poor quality of the site I was streaming it on. Upon renewing my interest a couple of nights ago, I decided I must finish Broadchurch before it somehow gets spoiled for me by possible acquaintances or strangers on other social media sites commenting on the outcome of the show.  This is a who-dun-it of immense proportions and I somehow remained free of spoilers despite the carefree way I read Wikipedia pages.

My love letter is after the jump.  Spoilers are hidden as best as I could contain them.

Quick Note of Thanks

a great big round of applause to my comrade Liz Cameron (Cirqueduliz) for making a wonderful image header for me. She is infinitely better at the internet than I am. Infinitely, I say.

Profiling

I do not fancy myself as having impeccable taste, but the tastes are my own.  What I choose to view may not be particularly refined, and I tend to moderately enjoy most things I watch.  So if there's a show that is widely known in critics circles to be "I'd-rather-stab-my-eye-repeatedly-with-a-white-hot-spork," I am probably going to say, to say, "Meh, it wasn't my jam per se, but I'm more of a trippple berrry lover and this was straight up choke-cherry." It boils down to taste.  So, if I don't rip on a show that you hate because it's "tasteless and crude," my feelings are generally more lukewarm than lobster-boiling-hot or snow-queen-heart-cold.

That's not to say I don't have strong opinions, but I am generally more likely to love something than to hate it.  Honestly, my life is pretty pitiful and depressing, so if a TV show makes me feel something it has done its job.

During the summer and during network lulls, I tend to marathon TV via DVD, HuluPlus, or Netflix, but once the fall premiers start up, I'm going to watch week by week like most people, but probably a day or two behind.

The types of shows that I tend to watch:

-I general, I really enjoy a lot of sitcoms -- animated and live action.  They're short, funny (I won't watch them if I don't laugh), and generally have great character development.  I like the heartfelt sitcoms as well as the raunchy -- double points if they are both.

-I tend not to get caught up in very many hour long (42 minute) dramas because I cannot be bothered to watch TV shows sequentially when they first air.  If I do watch these types of shows week to week, it's because of something very special (an actor/actress that I adore, or some amazing plot device).  Most of the time I will binge watch dramas though.

-Seriocomedies, I tend to like more than straight up drama. And if you can add mythological elements, or space travel, I will be all over that like Ricky on Meow Mix.  (He likes the cheapest food you can possibly buy.) Science-fiction and fantasy dramedy's are my trippple-berrry jam.

-Very select police procedurals.  Generally, the only ones that catch my eye is if they have some sort of unique element to them.  Specific examples after jump.


Read on to the truly boring part, where I list the television shows currently in production that I try to stay up to date on...

Spoilers and other random rules

I'm not the kind of individual who hates spoilers. At the most, I find them rather blase and I actually seek them out most of the time. This attitude stems from the fact that I really hate surprises. For example I screamed and threw a temper tantrum at the season 3 finale of Robin Hood. I hadn't bothered to read any synopses and was blindsided. This being taken in to account, however, I realize that many people do like to be kept in the dark about plot advancements.  Bearing this in mind as well, what I see as a spoiler, you may not, so I apologize in advance if my judgement is off. Once I remember some of the html I once knew, I'll probably just change the font color of the spoilers where you will have to highlight over them if you want to read them.  UPDATE: LOOK! I DID IT.

SPOILER ALERT:

"I couldn't believe that Moriarty was plotting against Sherlock throughout the entire run of episodes," is not a spoiler. But "Don't worry, Sherlock is not really dead," absolutely is because it ruins the suspense and build up of the episode.

Other rules, not much -- just be respectful.

Fair warning and I apologize for any confusion it may cause, I may use some Britishisms when writing... Season versus Series and Series versus Run.

Next up is a quick taste profile and then on to the Saurus's views on television.

A Hobby

These are the days of my life.

Ricky thinks that I need a hobby. I'm sure he doesn't really mind sitting on the couch with me as I binge on whatever the next TV show is that catches my fancy. He is not of the opinion that watching television during my waking hours constitutes a healthy, productive hobby. While I am not awake, the dreams I have tell amazing stories that should be on TV.

Ricky. Being super judgmental.

 One of the possible blessings in my life is that I do not actually have television, per se, but the internet and access to a DVD player. That being said, I do not merely sit down on a Tuesday night and watch my favorite show when it airs at 8pm. I watch it online after it airs. The relationship I have with my xbox is tumultuous. An xbox with Crackle, HuluPlus, Netflix and YouTube that constantly begs to be updated and fed 'points'. Betty teaching Daniel another heartwarming life lesson about why you should be a good person even though your sister faked her own death and your mother was turned crazy by some cheap perfume so she had to kill your father's mistress.

 I also have a tablet of sorts for when the day is too beautiful to spend my time inside, so I spend my day on an adventure with Merlin. He's always getting into trouble, that one.

And when I'm on the go, I grab my trusty smartphone and its wonderful 4G LTE to stream whatever it is I want to (read: HAVE TO) see. NOW. Preferably Jeremy Clarkson burning through another set of tires. Nearly every night, I fall asleep to the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry making fun of the limits of Alan Davies's knowledge.

Ricky got bored this evening as I finished watching Broadchurch and started chasing his tail, so if he can figure out something to do with his time while not watching TV, I guess I can too. I can write about it.